Hebrews 11:6 says “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” How much faith does it take to please God? If that’s something you wonder about then you’ve misunderstood what faith is. So many Christians have turned faith into just another form of works, where the burden is back on themselves to have enough faith, or a perfect enough faith to get God to act on their behalf. Living that way is actually having faith in your faith, which is something that grieves the heart of God. It is true that we live the Christian life by faith, but it is Jesus, not our faith that lives the Christian life. Faith lets Him do that. 2 Timothy 2:13 says, “If we believe not, He remains faithful; for He cannot deny Himself.” Faith is simply a response to His faithfulness. The burden for our salvation, and for living the Christian life is on Jesus and His faithfulness. True faith is actually looking away from yourself and resting in the faithfulness of Christ. Even if all you have to offer is just mustard seed faith, it is embraced by His perfect faith-fulness.
We live in response to His “finished” work, not by trying to finish the work by offering enough faith. I’ve come to believe that John 2:23 – 25 are some of the most important Scriptures in all the Bible explaining to us the gospel.
John 2:23-25 NASB95
“Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. [24] But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, [25] and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.”
Jesus knew what was in man because he had clothed himself with our fallen and broken humanity, and was tempted in every way like us. He knew that the only way for humanity to be saved, and set free to walk in righteousness was for mankind to entrust their whole fallen condition to Him. Christ came because God knew that he couldn’t entrust us to us the task of saving ourselves from our lostness, and brokenness. So, He grafted us into Christ entrusting us to Jesus. In Christ our sins were atoned for; the fallen falls self was put to death, and in His resurrection a new self in union with the risen Lord participates in His victorious righteous life. This was all done on our behalf, without one ounce of faith from us. Faith By grace, and grace alone are we saved. Faith is just the natural childlike response to His grace and faithfulness and says “Thank you,” and then goes on saying “Thank you” step by step, and day by day. The burden is not on you to have enough faith. The burden is always on Him to be faithful. Faith is joyfully resting in Him being faithful.